The Archive

Dynamo Kiev's Soviet Supreme League triumph in 1975 put the club on the way to being the most successful team in league history. Saul Pope reports

The long-term significance
Dynamo Kiev were midway through a run that would ultimately see them win more Soviet league titles than any other side. Spartak Moscow picked up six titles through the Fifties and Sixties but Dynamo accumulated eight through the Seventies and Eighties, leaving them with a total of 13 titles to Spartak’s 12. A large part of Dynamo’s success could be attributed to manager Valeriy Lobanovsky, a pioneer of football science who used physical and psychological testing to evaluate players’ potential and blended the total football of the era’s Dutch sides with tactical discipline. As well as winning the league in 1975, Lobanovsky’s Dynamo won the Cup-Winners Cup. They would repeat this feat in 1986 before Lobanovsky led the USSR to the Euro 88 finals and Dynamo to the Champions League semi-final in 1999. The English FA’s forthcoming National Football Centre is partly based on the training centre he built for his Dynamo side in the Seventies.

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Dave Jennings reflects on the demise of Newcastle Blue Star

Winning a promotion play-off final is surely one of the best feelings in football. It’s arguably better than winning a championship or a cup final because it’s transformative; not only has your team triumphed under enormous pressure, but it has turned itself into something higher and better than it was at the start of the day. After all the tension and euphoric release of the big day, you can enjoy the close season while relishing the prospect of the new grounds you’ll visit as your club enjoys its new, improved status.

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Ian Plenderleith looks over  Sky's decision to shut down the Rivals network

The age of the network webzine may be coming to a close. In July, Sky Sports shut down its Rivals family of club sites, sending all of its editors a curt notice of immediate termination, three months’ pay, and deleting the network’s entire content from the web. Few were surprised that Sky chose to brusquely cut off poorly recompensed part-time workers. Rivals had gone through a number of different owners with different ideas since its inception eight years ago, and each incarnation brought a new wave of defections from disillusioned editors, who either moved to or founded alternative networks. Indeed when Sky bought the company in late 2007, many suspected that its only goal was to close Rivals down, a theory that’s now hard to refute.

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Ray Stubbs has flown the BBC nest to become the main anchorman at ESPN. Si Hawkins relates a cautionary tale of broadcasting folk who made similar transfers

Amid all the machinations surrounding John Terry’s mooted move to Manchester City this summer it was easy to ignore another tale of long-term loyalty gone amiss. Ray Stubbs has joined ESPN from the BBC after a sterling 26 years of filling in while more important presenters went on holiday.

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In southern Spain, former England manager Glenn Hoddle is rebuilding the careers of young players. Steve Wilson reports

It would be understandable for the players of Notts County to be pinching themselves at the thought of pre-season under the guidance of Sven-Göran Eriksson. The chance to work with a former England manager, despite career paths that appeared to have closed off such a possibility, might appear unique to them. Elsewhere, however, the same, equally unexpected opportunity has befallen another set of hopefuls. At least four of whom would give glowing reports as to the redemptive qualities such an experience brings.

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